


Shut In

by SoraMoto



Series: Podcast Scripts [16]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Agoraphobia, Neighbors, little bit of kindness, little bit of romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-19 13:52:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16535813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoraMoto/pseuds/SoraMoto
Summary: Jenny's only just moved in to her new apartment, but the strange neighbor across the hall is a rare sight.





	Shut In

Jenny’s been living in this apartment building for a little less than a month now and still is yet to meet her neighbor across the hall. When she’d first moved in Becky, a middle aged soccer mom in the apartment next door to her, had arranged a meet and greet for the floor so she could get to know one another. However, the mystery neighbor hadn’t shown.

“He’s a shy one. A writer or something, rarely leaves his apartment.”

“I once saw that he even gets his groceries delivered.”

“I’m never sure if it's romantic and mysterious or creepy and uncomfortable that he never seems to want to interact with anyone.”

The discussion from their had turned to planning another potluck around the holidays to get rid of extra food and do a small gift exchange.

Glancing at the door across the hall once more, Jenny pulls out her keys before putting them in the lock and turning the knob. Just as she does she hears another knob turn behind her and she glances over her shoulder.

There standing in the crack of the door to the mysterious neighbor’s apartment is a tall dark haired man with steely grey eyes that shift back and forth across the hall as if looking for something.

“Hello, are you looking for something?”

The man’s eyes quickly focus on Jenny and she raises one brow in anticipation of some sort of answer.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Jenny, I just moved in this month.”

He seems to think about this for a long moment before nodding with a strange sense of certainty. “Tom.”

The two stare at one another, Jenny growing more and more uncomfortable the longer they do.

“Well, I’m just going to,”

“Would you like to come in?”

Jenny is as surprised by the offer as Tom looks.

“Um,”

“Ah, it's not for anything weird, it's just, uh, how do I put this? You look like you belong in a novel.”

Blinking, Jenny still isn’t sure how to take that and the two lapse once more into uncomfortable silence.

“Nevermind, forget I said anything. Have a good evening.”

The door to the other apartment is closed quickly and the lock slid into place before Jenny can fully register what just happened. Shrugging it off she goes back to entering her own apartment and trying not to think about how she looks like she belongs in a novel.

*

“I swear it was the strangest thing. If I wasn’t so sure that he doesn’t know how to interact with people I’d swear he was trying to flirt with me.”

“How do you know he wasn’t just being awkward?”

“Because their is awkward and then there is whatever he was doing. I mean it's kind of sweet if you think about it, telling someone they look like they belong in a novel.”

“Yeah, but what if he writes horror or murder mysteries?”

“I mean he could, though I heard somewhere that writers will put people they know into their work, if only so they have a real world reference for certain parts.”

“Fair enough. Would you have gone into his place though?”

“No, I just don’t know him well enough to do that. No one else on the floor knows him very well either, and some of the rumors about him are just, well you get the idea.”

“Yeah, I get it. A girl can never be too careful.”

*

It's another week before Jenny sees Tom again, this time it's at the trash chute as she’s tossing out a couple of empty bottles.

“Hey, don’t throw that out!”

She stops and turns to see her neighbor reaching out toward the empty bottles.

“Well I’d recycle them if our apartment had that option, but it doesn’t.”

Tom seems to frown, hands falling to his sides and clenching at the sides of his pants. “No, no, you’re right.”

“Do you every drop stuff at the recycle center? I know there’s one around her, but I never have time to stop by.”

“Ah, well, I would, but um, going out, it's hard.”

“I can see that. Are you ok, you seem rather uncomfortable.”

“Oh, well yes, it's just,” Tom lifts one hand to show he’s also holding a bag of trash for the chute.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stand in your way.” Jenny takes a step to the side, noting that Tom seems to eye her empty bottles, then the chute and then her bottles again.

“Weren’t you going to,”

“Oh, it's fine. I really should recycle more. I’ll just get out of your way.” As she moves to pass him in the narrow doorway for the trash room, she sees him tense before scurrying into the room. She doesn’t look back as she makes her way to her own apartment, curiosity piqued by the strange behavior of her neighbor.

*

It's the next day at work that she realizes what is probably wrong with Tom, or rather, why Tom seems so strange.

“It's agoraphobia.”

“What’s agoraphobia?”

“Oh, it's just, I think my neighbor may have it.”

Jenny’s coworker looks at her funny for a moment. “Is that contagious?”

“No, it's just, it's the fear of going outside. He’s always nervous and timid when he’s outside of his apartment.”

“Wow, that sounds rough. How does he get anything done?”

“He mostly just stays in his apartment.”

“So he must be rich right? I mean if he doesn’t need a job.”

“He’s a writer, so he can actually work from home.”

“Nice. Oh, what books does he write?”

*

Jenny stands in front of the mailboxes on her way up to her apartment. In her hand is a folded piece of paper with her name, apartment number and a simple question, ‘What books have you written?’ 

Mostly she’s curious because she wants to know what kind of books he writes, but a small part of her thinks it will be interesting to see if she can make friends with Tom, bring him out of his shell a bit more, even if not his apartment.

Taking a deep breath she slips it into Tom’s mailbox and heads upstairs to figure out what to do for dinner.

*

The next day as she is coming back from work, Jenny almost trips over a small stack of books piled in front of her apartment. On top of them lies a note, so she bends over and picks it up.

‘You’re the first to ask. I included a few here.”

Looking down reveals an odd assortment of many genres and styles. But they all have one thing in common, the name of the author.

Picking them up she heads into her apartment to open a bottle of red wine and order pizza before settling in for a long evening of reading.

*

“He left you a stack of his books?”

“I know, I know, it seems so weird, but I did ask him what he writes.”

“Still,” Jenny’s friend takes a long sip of her frappe, “Were they any good at least?”

“Yeah, I almost could put down the first one. It's an action adventure with a strong female lead. I would have expected a male lead considering a guy is writing it, but she’s well written and doesn’t come off as unrealistic like some female characters these days.”

“So no ‘strange beauty’ or ‘enthralling eyes’?”

“Nope, just a normal girl swept up in an adventure. It's as if he wrote a guy in her place first and then reversed all the pronouns.”

“Nice. Give me his name, I’m going to the library to find some, or the bookstore.”

*

‘Thank you for the books, you’re really talented.’

Jenny slips the next note into Tom’s mailbox again. It's a little like having a pen pal at this point.

Smiling she heads up to her apartment.

*

It's now been almost a year since Jenny moved in to this apartment. She’s been regularly exchanging notes with Tom for almost as long, occasionally getting copies of books left by her door.

Today’s one of those days where a book has been placed in front of her door.

Bending over, she picks it up and looks it over as she fumbles with her keys before making her way inside and settling on the couch.

“‘Neighbor’, huh? That’s an interesting title.”

Flipping open the book she briefly glances over the dedications page before moving on. It takes her a moment but soon she’s flipping back to the dedications page.

‘Thank you to my wonderful neighbor Jenny, you’ve been a great help and inspiration with your kindness. I hope you enjoy this book as much as the others.’

With a small smile Jenny flips the pages and begins reading.


End file.
